Heretofore, once there had been constructed a bite-simulating articulated master model of the patient's jaws, there was sliced and separated therefrom a master die of the particular tooth and an adjacent jaw requiring a crown or bridge. The dies were trimmed and finish lines marked. A plastic coping was often built up upon the simulated tooth portion of the master die and this was normally trimmed by scissors to the desired finishing line, however, the degree of accuracy was limited, making it necessary to complete the margins with wax. This procedure was time consuming, the margins were very fragile and the area where the wax and the coping joined was often detectable, lessening the quality of the restoration. One of the many popular waxing techniques was used to complete the crown or bridge combination as requested by the doctor. The completed wax pattern was then invested, burned out and cast with a suitable dental alloy in accordance with the lost wax process.
It is an object of the present invention to substitute for the old and conventional manner of forming wax patterns, a method by which molten wax is applied into the cavity of a preselectd metal stamp having an occlusal or lingual anatomy corresponding to the optimum desired natural shape for that particular tooth in order to create a preformed occlusal or lingual pattern for the depth of the stamp. The occlusal or lingual pattern while plastic and within the stamp is inverted over the coping while applying axial pressure thereto and with the application of heat adhering said pattern to the coping.
It is another object to provide an occlusal stamp having a metal base and a preformed margin defining a cavity adapted to receive the molten wax and with the cavity having a predetermined shape and occlusal or lingual anatomy corresponding to the optimum desired natural shape and size for a particular tooth.
These and other objects will be seen from the following specification and claims in conjunction with the appended drawing.